21:1-18. Manasseh.

(Introversion [Chiasmo]).

R²  k  1. Introduction. Accession.
     l  2-9. Events. Personal. Evil-doing.
      m  10-15. Threatening of Yehovah.
     l  16. Events. Personal. Evil-dong.
    k  17,18. Conclusion. Record and death.

21)

 1 Manasseh (= forgetting. So named because God had made Hezekiah forget his troubles [cp. Joseph, Gen.41:51]. A sad name for him wo became the worst of Judah's kings. His name appears second in the list of kings who brought gifts to Esar-haddon) [was] twelve years old when he began to reign (therefore not born till the third of Hezekiah's 15 addd years. See 20:18), and reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name [was] Hephzi-bah (= my delight is in her. Cp. reference to the marriage in Isa.62:4. A prophecy, given at the time of Hezekiah, foretelling a happier time; even the "good" of 20:19).

 2 And he did [the] evil (generally associated with idolatry) in the sight of Yehovah, after the abominations of the nations, whom Yehovah cast out before the sons of Israel.
 3 For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed (see 18:4,22); and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an ‘asherah (see Ex.34:13), according as did Ahab king of Israel (see 11:18, and cp. 1 Kings 16:31,32); and worshipped all the host of heaven (never done before in Judah. Cp. Deut.4:19; 17:3), and served them.
 4 And he built altars in the house of Yehovah, of which Yehovah said, “In Jerusalem will I put My name.”
 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Yehovah (see 1 Kings 7:12).
 6 And he made his sons pass through the fire (Cp. 2 Chron.33:6. As Ahaz had done [16:3; cp. 23:10. Deut.18:10]. The name of Moloch was common at this time [Zeph.1:5]), and observed times (cp. Deut.18:10), and used enchantments (the same as modern spiritism. Cp. Lev.19:31. Deut.18:11), and dealt with familiar spirits (Heb. a familiar spirit. See Lev.19:31) and mediums: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of Yehovah, to provoke [Him] to anger.
 7 And he set a carved ’asherah that he had made in the house (see v.3. Remved by Josiah [23:6]), of which Yehovah said to David, and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put My name for ever:
 8 Neither will I make the feet of Israel wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them” (see Num.12:7).
 9 But they did not listen: and Manasseh seduced them (not said of any previous king) to do the evil more than did the nations whom Yehovah destroyed before the sons of Israel.

 10 And Yehovah spoke through his servants the prophets, saying,
 11 Because Manasseh king of Judah has made these abominations, [and] has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did (one of the 7nations of Canaan, descendants of the Nephilim. See Gen.6:2,4), which [were] before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his filthy (or manufactured) idols:
 12 Therefore thus says Yehovah Elohim of Israel, “Behold, I [am] bringing [such] evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle (cp. 1 Sam.3:11).
 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as [a man] wipes a dish, wiping [it], and turning [it] upside down (emphasising completeness of the work).
 14 And I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance (cp. 19:30. Jerusalem survided the calamities of 18:13, but would not survive those that were coming), and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
 15 Because they have done [that which was] evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even to this day.’ ”

 16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much (tradition says the Isaiah was one who suffered martyrdom [Jos. Ant. x. 3:1]), till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing [that which was] evil in the sight of Yehovah.

 17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh (cp. 2 Chron.33:12-19. His captivity in Babylon, &c.), and all that he did, and his great sin, [are] they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
 18 And Manasseh slept with his fathers (his father was the best of Judah's kings, and he was the worst. See Deut.31:16), and was buried in the garden of his own house (not in the sepulchres of the kings), in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

R³  n  19. Introduction. Accession.
     o  20-22. Events. Personal. Evil-doing.
     o  23,24. Events. Plitical. Retribution.
    n  25,26. Conclusion. Burial.

533 to 531 B.C.

 19 Amon (= builder) [was] twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name [was] Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah (cp. Num.33:33. Deut.10:7).

 20 And he did [that which was] evil in the sight of Yehovah, as his father Manasseh did.
 21 And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:
 22 And he forsook Yehovh Elohim of his fathers, and walked not in the way of Yehovah.

 23 And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.
 24 And the People of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the People of the land made Josiah (= whom Yehovah heals) his son king in his stead.

 25 Now the rest of the acts of Amon and all that which he did, [are] they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
 26 And he was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza (Heb. keber, a [not "the"] grave, or tomb. Cp. 22:20): and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.

R4  D  22:1. Introduction. Accession.
     E  p  22:2. Event. Personal well-doing.
         q  22:3-23:24. Josiah's reformation.
     E  p  23:25. Event. Personal well-doing.
         q  23:26,27. Manasseh's provocation.
    D  23:2830. Conclusion.

22)

 1 Josiah [was] eight years old when he began to reign (Manasseh began at 12, bred under godly Hezekiah. Josiah began at 8, bred by ungodly Amon. Contrast the two characters), and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name [was] Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath (in Judah. Cp. Josh.15:39).

 2 And he did [that which was] right in the sight of Yehoavh, and walked in all the way[s] of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left (Josiah is the only king of whom this is said).

q  F  r¹  22:3-7. Repairs of Temple.
       s¹  22:8. Book found.
      r²  22:9. Repairs of Temple.
       s²  22:10,11. Book found.
        G  t¹  22:12,13. Command. Inquiry.
            u¹  22:14. Obedience. Inquiry.
           t²  22:15-17. Threatening Judah. Answer.
            u²  22:18-20. Consolation. Josiah. Answer.
   F  r³  23:1,2-. Assemblage of people.
       s³  23:-2. Book read.
        G  t³  23:3. Josiah's well-doing.
            u³  23:4-20. Evil removed.
           t4  23:21-23. Josiah's well-doing.
            u4  23:24. Evil removed.

513 B.C.

 3 And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah (marks the completion of the work [23:23]. Begun in the 12th year [2 Chron.34:3,8]. Jeremiah was called in Josiah's 13th year [Jer.1:2; 25:3], and was to Josiah what Isaiah was to Hezekiah), [that] the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah (= coney. 8 relatives mentioned in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles: (1) His grandfather, Meshullum; (2) his father, Azaliah; (3) his son, Ahikam [v.12]; (4) his som Gemariah [Jer.36:10]; (5) his son, Elasah [Jer.29:3]; (6) his son, Jaazaniah [Ezek.8:11]; (7) his grandson Michaiah [Jer.36:11,13]; (8) his gandson, Gedaliah [Jer.39-43]), the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of Yehovah, saying,
 4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest (= God is my portion. The son of Shallum and father of Azariah [1 Chron.6:13]), that he may pour out (or pay away) the silver which is brought into the house of Yehovah, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the People:
 5 And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work (these are the overseers), that have the oversight of the house of Yehovah: and let them give it to the doers (these are the labourers) of the work which [is] in the house of Yehovah, to repair the breaches of the house,
 6 To carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.” (some codices read, "the breaches of the house" as in v.5)
 7 However there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.
 8 And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the house of Yehovah.” (i.e. the original copy of the Pentateuch, laid up by the side of the Ark [Deut:31:24-26]. Probably secreted during the reigns of Manasseh [21:16] and Amon [21:21]. See Ex.17:14) And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
 9 And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, “Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of Yehovah.”
 10 And Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king (especially those parts applicable to the then circumstances, such as Lev.26. Deut.28, &c.).
 11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he tore his clothes (not necessarily on account of his surprise, but on account of the solemnity of the words).
 12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan (= a brother who raises up. The friend of Jeremiah [Jer.26:24] and father of Gedaliah [cp. 25:22. Jer.39:14; 40:5), and Achbor the son of Michaiah (= mouse. not the same person as Abdon, in 2 Chron.34:20. The two Books are independant), and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah (Yehovah has made) a servant of the king's, saying,
 13 “Go you all, enquire of Yehovh for me, and for the people, and for all Judah (some codices read, "and for the remnant in Israel and in Judah". Cp. 2 Chron.34:21), concerning the words of this book that is found: for great [is] the wrath of Yehovah that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that which is written concerning us.”
 14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went to Huldah (= weasel [for its gliding motion]) the prophetess (others mentioned are Miriam [Ex.15:20. Mic.6:4]; Deborah [Judg.4:4]; Noadiah [Neh.6:14]; Isaiah's wife [Isa.8:3]; Anna [Luke 2:36]; and Philip's daughters [Acts 21:9]), the wife of Shallum (cp. the usage [Judg.4:4]. The employment of a woman as a prophet shows the degeneracy of the times, deplored by Isaiah [9:15], denounced by Jeremiah [5:7,8; 14:14; 23:14-30; 37:19. Lam.2:14], and by Ezekiel [13:2-23]. Inferred also by Huldah's words [vv.15-18], and Jer.5:31) the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (i.e. vestry, or vestments); {now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college (Heb. in the second. Some supply "part", or "city". Probably = "second gate [of the city]". Cp. 2 Chron.34:22 and Zeph.1:10);} and they communed with her.
 15 And she said to them, “Thus says Yehovah Elohim of Israel, ‘Tell the man that sent you to me,
 16 ‘Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, [even] all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read:
 17 Because they have forsaken Me (Huldah adopts the words of Deut.29:25-27), and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore My wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.’ ’
 18 But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of Yehovah, thus shall you all say to him, ‘Thus says Yehovah Elohim of Israel, ‘[As touching] the words which you have heard (supply Elipsis thus: "Thus says Yehovah Elohim: the words which you have listened to [shall surely come to pass]. In that your heart was tender.....I have also heard you");
 19 In order that your heart was tender, and you have humbled yourself before Yehovah, when you listened to what I spoke against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse (these words are from Deu.11:26; 28:15-19; 29:19; 30:1. Cp. Jer.44:22), and have torn your clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard [you],’ says Yehovah.
 20 ‘Behold therefore, I will gather you to your fathers (see Gen.49:33), and you shall be gathered into your grave (Heb. keber [not Sheol]. In 21:26 rendered sepluchre) in peace (Josiah died in war [23:29]; but why not "in peace" of mind and heart as well? Cp. Isa.57:2); and Your eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.’ ” ” And they brought the king word again.

23)

and he read (either himself;or, by Heb. idiom, "caused to be read") in their ears (cp. Neh.8:1-4, &c. the king did not keep it to himself. God's Word is for all) all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of Yehovah.

 3 And the king stood by a pillar (or, on the pillar, or, platform. Cp. 11:14), and made a covenant before Yehovah, to walk after Yehovah, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all [their] heart and all [their] soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the People stood to the covenant (but not for long. See Jer.11:2-20).

 4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order (or degree, i.e. ordinary priests), and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of Yehovah all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the ‘asherah, and for all the host of heaven (cp. 21:3): and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron (as prescrbed in Deut.7:25), and carried the ashes of them to Beth-el (to defile the altar there, according to the prophecy in 1 Kings 13:2).
 5 And he put down the idolatrous priests (= black-robed; not kohen, as appointed by God, but kemarim, as appointed by man. Cp. Hos.10:5; Zeph.1:4), whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets (= stations: i.e. the 12 signs of the Zodiac. Heb. mazzãlõth. Spelt Mazzãrõth in Job 38:32 = stations. The Babylonian name for the divisions of the zodiac. Called in the Assyrian inscriptions "Mauzalti". [See Western Asiatic Inscriptions]), and to all the host of heaven.
 6 And he brought out the ‘asherah from the house of Yehovah, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped [it] small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves (Heb. keber. See 21:26) of the sons of the people (= of the common people in Jer.26:23. In 2 Chron.35:5 it = the laity as distinguished from Levites).
 7 And he broke down the houses of the sodomites (= male prostitutes. Suppression directed in Deut.23:17,18. See 1 Kings 14:23,24), that [were] by the house of Yehovah, where the women wove hangings for the ásherah (Heb. houses. Probably veils to cover the ásherah, as it is covered in Romish processions today).
 8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense (seemingly [from v.5] some were used for the worship of Yehovah. See 1 Kings 18:29; 19:10:14), from Geba (now Jeba [Josh.18:24]) to Beer-sheba (southern boundry [Gen.21:31. Judg.20:1]. Cp. Amos 5:5; 8:14), and broke down the high places of the gates that [were] in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which [were] on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.
 9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places (not idolatrous priests. See v.8) came not up to the altar of Yehovah in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
 10 And he defiled the Topheth (= place of burning. By fig., put for anything abhorrent), which [is] in the valley of the sons of Hinnom (the junction of the three valleys uniting south of Jerusalem. The continual fires burning there gave the Greekb name Gehenna [from the Heg. Ge Hinnom = the valley of Hinnom), that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech (cp. Jer.7:31,32; 19:2-6. Prohibited Deut.18:10. Cp. 1 Kings 11:7).
 11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun (presumably Manasseh and Amon. See 21:3-5), at the entering in from the house of Yehovah, to the chamber of Nathan-melech the eunuch (or officer), which [was] in the suburbs (or outskirts), and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
 12 And the altars that [were] on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Yehovah, did the king beat down, and broke [them] down from that place (the margin of A.V. seems preferable here: "hurried away with them from that place), and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
 13 And the high places that [were] before Jerusalem (i.e. the east side. See Zech.16:4), which [were] on the right hand of the mount of corruption (i.e. the Mount of Olives. Thus called on account of the idolatries connected with it), which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth (= a star) the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites (= subduer. Cp. 1 Kings 11:5,6), and for Milcom (= great king) the abomination of the sons of Ammon, did the king defile.
 14 And he broke in pieces the pillars (or statues), and cut down the ‘asherah, and filled their places with the bones of men (Heb. ’ãdãm. Used collectively).
 15 Moreover the altar that [was] at Beth-el (cp. 1 King 12:32,33), [and] the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin (see 1 Kings 14:16), had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place, [and] stamped [it] small to powder, and burned the ‘asherah.
 16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres (Heb. pl. of keber. See 21:26) that [were] there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned [them] upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of Yehovah (see 1 kings 13:2) which the man of Elohim proclaimed (supply Ellipsis thus: "proclaimed [when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the feast], wo proclaimed these words" 369 years before. See 1 Kings 13:1,2), who proclaimed these words.
 17 Then he said, “What monument [is] that that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “[It is] the sepulchre of the man of Elohim (God), which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel.”
 18 And he said, “Let him alone; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
 19 And all the houses also of the high places that [were] in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [Yehovah] to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el.
 20 And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places that [were] there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

 21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the passover to Yehovah your Elohim, as [it is] written in the book of the covenant (see Ex.12:18).
 22 Surely there was not held such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah (cp. Hezekiah's Passover, of which the same is said [2 Chron.30:26]. Both statements true. Hezekiah's greater than any before it. Josiah's greater than Hezekiah's. See the details [2 Chron.35:1-19]. There were larger numbers, and the law was more exactly followed. Hezekiah's Passover kept just before the dispersion of Israel. Josiah's Passover kept just before the captivity of Judah);
 23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, [wherein] this Passover was held to Yehovah in Jerusalem.

 24 Moreover the [workers with] familiar spirits (see Lev.19:31), and the wizards, and the teraphim (= household gods), and the manufactured gods, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah cut away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yehovah (see 22:8, &c.).

 25 And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to Yehovah with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there [any] like him.

 26 Notwithstanding Yehovah turned not from the fierceness of His great wrath, wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked Him withal.
 27 And Yehovah said, “I will remove Judah also out of My sight, according as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen (= I once, or beforewhile, chose), and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’ ”

 28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, [are] they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

500 B.C.

 29 In his days Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt (Nechoh = lame. Nechoh II, the 6th king of the 26th dynasty. His father was a tributary to Assyria, bu had seccured independence from Egypt) went up against the king of Assyria (i.e. the king of Babylon, who had just conquered Ninevah, the rival capital) to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him (his motive not known); and he (the king of Egypt) slew him (Josiah) at Megiddo (= place of crowds. Southern margin of the plain of Esdraelon, celebrated for Syria's defeat by Barak [Judg.5:19]), when he had seen him (Fig., to emphasise he did much more that "see" him. Cp. 14:8 and 2 Chron.35:21,22).
 30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre (for the sorrow attending this, see 2 Chron.35:25). And the People of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.

R5  H  31. Appointment by People (v.30).
     I  32. Personal character.
    H  33-35. Appointment by Pharaoh-nechoh.

 33 And Pharaoh-nechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath (after his defeat by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish. Riblah was a center from which place roads branched to the Euphrates and Nineveh, or by Palmyra to Babylon. The southern roads led to Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt. Riblah still bears this name, and is about 25 miles south-south-west of Emesa), that he might not reign in Jerusalem (Heb. text reads "when he reigned". A.V. foloows some codices); and put the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver (*aprox. 1,000 lbs), and a talent of gold (*200 lbs).
 34 And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim (= raised up by God) the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father (name changed, to assert Pharaoh-nechoh's authority. Refusing to recognise the People's appontment of v.30), and turned his name to Jehoiakim (= whom Yehovah sets ups), and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there (as Jeremiah foretold [22:11,12]).
 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he assessed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his assessment, to give [it] to Pharaoh-nechoh.

R6  v  23:36. Introduction.
     w  x¹  23:37. Events. Personal.
        x²  24:1-4. Events. Political.
    v  24:5,6. Conclusion.
     w  x³  24:7-. Event. Non-invasion from Egypt.
        x4  24:-7. Event. Reason

500 to 489 B.C.

 36 Jehoiakim [was] twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name [was] Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

 37 And he did [that which was] evil in the sight of Yehovah, according to all that his fathers had done. (See 2 Chron.36:5-8. Jer.22:17; 24:8; 26:22,23; N.B. Jer.13-20, and probably 22:;26; 35; 36; belong to this period.)